


I See a Blue Robe and I Want To Paint It Black

by CatKing_Catkin



Series: Crack Pairings [2]
Category: Peacemaker Kurogane, Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Major Character Injury, Near Death Experience, Plague, Rescue, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-12
Updated: 2012-11-12
Packaged: 2017-11-18 11:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/560501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The plague has come to the land. After stopping in a village to do what they could, Xena is horrified to realize that Gabrielle has caught it. Helping her is well beyond Xena's power. Instead, she loads Gabrielle up onto the horse and makes for the nearest town with decent doctors, consequences be damned.</p><p>Fortunately for Xena, and for the rest of her land, they come across two familiar figures from Xena's past along the way. And fortunately for Gabrielle, they're willing to put aside old grudges to help save a life. Hijikata had already been called to stem the outbreak of plague. He sees nothing wrong with making Gabrielle his first patient.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I See a Blue Robe and I Want To Paint It Black

Xena had seen many people die. Xena had caused many deaths. Mostly, they were all the same in the end. The eyes went wide, the last gasp was taken, and then all was still and silent.

Mostly, she saw people bleed to death, cut down by many clumsy wounds or by one expert one. It was a horrible way to go. But compared to dying of the plague…well, in those circumstances, death by something as simple and common as violence was practically _clean_.

And even that was a hard stance to take when it was her own dear friend that seemed to be walking that road for herself.

Argo had never liked Gabrielle. The fact that the horse was even consenting to carry the girl now was a sign that he knew as well as she just how dire the situation was. The stench of disease and sickness covering Gabrielle like a funeral shroud was making Xena uneasy – Argo should have been frantic.

Xena risked another anxious glance at her friend as they walked together on the road to Thrace. There was dried blood around her mouth and nose and livid bruising along her pale arms, easily visible from where they hung limply over Argo’s sides. The tips of her fingers were worst of all, where the skin was already growing shriveled and black.

The village that had visited this hell upon them had been a lost cause, despite Xena’s best efforts. She’d been able to save a few, or at least to let them live another few days. Hopefully, another few days would be enough for their own bodies to do the rest.

Or perhaps it wouldn’t.

She knew that she shouldn’t have left after Gabrielle had gotten sick. It was putting so many people at risk to bring the plague even further beyond the borders of the isolated little village that had spawned it. But they weren’t the only ones to have fled, Thrace would have doctors and healers with skills that Xena could never hope to match, and it was _Gabrielle_ who was sick.

The fact that the guards on the walls of Thrace wouldn’t even let her in with a plague carrier on her horse’s back had only briefly crossed Xena’s mind before being forcibly shoved away. She’d performed what treatment she could on the road. Gabrielle couldn’t be that sick. If they wouldn’t let her inside, maybe they would let a healer come out.

She had to try.

Even so, for the sake of any that might also have been on the road to Thrace, Xena had kept herself and Argo off the main road. She could see it from where they walked, but with any luck they were far enough away that Gabrielle would be unable to infect anyone. Here and now, the only travelers she could see on the road was a small, rickety carriage being pulled doggedly along the road by a shaggy draft horse.

The driver was sitting quietly on his seat, smoking a long, thin pipe. The smoke curled lazily in the air around the carriage, settling in the sticky summer air. Xena hadn’t slept in well over a day, but due to the urgency of the situation she kept her pace quick – soon enough, she was drawing level with the carriage, which was proceeding at a brisk pace under its own right.

She was eager to pass it by, leave it far behind, for the sake of the driver and whoever he was carrying along. Gabrielle was important, but that didn’t mean that anyone else should be allowed to fall sick.

She had a brief impression of long black hair and intense eyes before Gabrielle stirred feebly. But before Xena could express her relief at even this small sign of life, her friend had rolled off of Argo’s back and collapsed to the forest floor.

“Gabrielle!” Xena cried, dropping to her knees beside the sick girl. Coughing painfully, Gabrielle nevertheless managed to shove Xena away with her shoulder before vomiting. Despite herself, Xena had to do her best not to cringe at the sound of her friend emptying the contents of what should have been an empty stomach into the dirt. All she could do was try to soothe her friend, gently rubbing her back and trying to keep her long hair out of her face.

The Warrior Princess was abruptly brought back to reality by the sound of a familiar voice.

“Don’t touch her.”

Xena looked up, startled. Standing at the edge of the path, looking down at them, was the driver of the cart. She hadn’t recognized him at first, so eager had she been to move along, but now he stood before her and she remembered him. That long, dark hair, those narrow eyes, that outlandish garb like nothing that would be found in her lands…

“Hijikata.”

The physician spared her a curt nod before wading through the underbrush to join them. “Move aside,” he ordered. Xena felt something inside of her bristle at being ordered about by this man, this man she had last encountered years ago in the bad old days as one of her worst enemies.

And if he was nearby, this far from home, he almost certainly wasn’t alone.

“Unless you want to be infected yourself, move aside,” Hijikata commanded again. He sighed in apparent exasperation and shook his head. “It’s probably nesting inside of you already.”

“You…you know about the plague?” Xena managed to stammer. Her first impulse was to snap and growl as the physician knelt down next to Gabrielle and began examining her.

“Of course I know about the plague. Why else would I be here in _your_ lands?”

The way he said those two words made his distaste clear enough. Xena grimaced – her feelings were much the same for the lands Hijikata called home. It was the only realm she had never conquered, the frontier that had driven her back. The Orient was a place she both respected and feared, for several different reasons. One was carefully and competently assessing Gabrielle’s condition.

Another had just poked his head out of the door of the carriage. Xena knew that face even better. It was burned and branded into her mind, a memory among many tinted with blood.

“Hijikata-san?” Okita Souji called out curiously. “Why have we stopped?”

Where Hijikata’s expression was stoic, intense, professional, the other man wore a look of polite curiosity as he stepped out of the cart, smoothing his robes as he did so. “Is someone hurt?” he asked again, making his way towards them.

“Plague,” Hijikata called back as Souji began wading through the undergrowth towards them. “Her symptoms match what we were told to look out for.” Frowning in evident frustration, he took a long pull from his pipe. “That it’s spread past the village so quickly…”

“That would be very bad. At least we caught this one as quickly as we did. I hate to think what could have happened if she’d reached…”

Xena’s breath caught in her throat as Souji’s eyes finally found hers’. His look of concerned bemusement melted into one of instant, and not entirely friendly, recognition.

“Why, Xena-chan!” he said, with a tight smile. “It has been a very long time, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, it has,” Xena replied, her voice equally tight and perfectly controlled as his. “Hello, Souji.”

“You don’t look sick. I’m very glad of that.” Souji knelt down just behind Hijikata, close enough to see Gabrielle while still keeping Hijikata between him and her. And when Hijikata scowled at him, he moved back further. “But she does look very sick.”

“She is,” Xena said, her voice catching slightly in her throat at the memory. “We…we passed through the infected village, where the plague first appeared. But when Gabrielle started showing symptoms…”

“You decided to take her to a physician,” Hijikata finished. “Removing an infected girl from the site of an infection, thereby potentially allowing it to spread far beyond the initial danger zone and putting hundreds more at risk.”

“We’ve been keeping away from people,” Xena snapped back, even though she knew the truth behind Hijiakata’s words. “I knew I could take care of her.”

“I have no doubt that you knew the risks. But as to whether or not you knew what you were doing? I’ll be the judge of that.” He got to his feet wish a swish of his robes. “Souji. We’ll rest here for tonight. I’ll find a place for us to rest – you bring them along.”

“Yes, sir, Hijikata-san!” Souji chirped, shooting his captain a jaunty salute. Then he turned back to face Xena and bent down to face her and Gabrielle. “Can you carry your friend just a little longer, Xena-chan? I’m sure Hijikata-san won’t make us walk too far.”

Xena knew that Hijikata wouldn’t make Souji walk too far, no. She had no such reassurances for herself or Gabrielle. When she began to bundle Gabrielle into her arms again, Xena flinched when Souji was suddenly beside her, reaching out for Gabrielle. But he only smiled his infuriating smile when she jerked away from him, and reached over her to gently smooth some sweat-soaked hair from Gabrielle’s forehead.

“We are here in your country on a mission of peace, Xena-chan,” he chided her gently. “One of your kings paid us a very great deal of money to bring Hijikata-san here to help. They know he is the very best physician there is, and they know he will do everything he can to take care of these sick people. Even your sick friend.”

“We’ve never been friends in the past, Okita,” Xena growled. But when Souji helped her load Gabrielle safely back onto Argo, she did nothing to stop him. “I have no reason to trust that you have our best intentions at heart.”

“Of course we aren’t friends. If you’ll recall, you’re the one who brought your armies to our gates with the intent of slaughtering and enslaving us all. We are the ones who beat you back. That doesn’t make us very friendly, does it, Xena-chan?”

Turning to go and follow Hijikata back down the path, Souji beckoned for her to follow. “Or maybe it does!” he called back over his shoulder, shooting her a bright smile. “By rights, we’re probably the best friends you ever had before you met that girl. But I have heard that things have changed since then, so maybe I’m wrong.” He clambered back up onto the path, shading his eyes to see Hijikata already several yards ahead. “What do you think, Xena-chan?”

“I don’t know.” Carefully, oh so carefully, so as not to dislodge Gabrielle, Xena led Argo onto the path and stood beside him. “But you did hear right, Souji – a lot has changed since we last crossed paths.”

“I’m very happy for you.” And he fell easily into step with her as they strode together down the path, trailing the carriage and its sturdy black horse far ahead.

“But I am curious. Of all the men under his command, why would Hijikata bring you this far from home? And to a plague infestation, of all things. I thought he showed more consideration for your condition than this.”

“Oh, he does! That’s why Hijikata-san decided to bring me along. He says I’m so ill that there’s no room left in my body for plague, and that a change the different weather might do me good besides. And the chance to learn about other lands. I’m happy to finally see your land, Xena-chan. It has many problems, but it’s also a wonderful place despite that.”

“That’s nice of you to say, Souji.” Xena risked yet another cautious sideways glance at Gabrielle, just to reassure herself that falling of Argo’s back again would not be yet another risk her friend was facing. Gabrielle was ill and dying, but Xena was still determined to spare her whatever pain she could. She knew that Souji saw everything that lay between them, and she didn’t care. “One thing that’s changed since we last met is that now I think so, too.”

Uncertain and unsure but knowing that their options were limited and that their time was short, Xena followed the man following the cart down the empty road to Thrace and a setting sun and an uncertain future.


End file.
